Sergeant, 25, enjoyed challenges of outdoors since he was a youth

August 11, 2004|By Maria Kantzavelos and Shia Kapos, Special to the Tribune.

Sgt. Ryan M. Campbell had a flair for bringing humor to a situation, but he also had a serious, more contemplative side.

"He thought about things a lot, trying to understand and answer some of the most fundamental human questions," said his mother, Mary Ann MacCombie.

Campbell, who held a degree in justice systems from Truman State University in Kirksville, Mo., joined the Army for a change of scenery after a divorce, and planned to enter graduate school and pursue a career in juvenile probation.

Campbell, 25, of Kirksville had been in Iraq for more than a year when he was killed with seven other soldiers on April 29 in a car bombing in Baghdad. He was assigned to the 4th Battalion, 27th Field Artillery Regiment, 1st Armored Division, based in Baumholder, Germany.

From his childhood, when it was common to find Campbell perched in treetops or waking up before dawn to go fishing, the high-energy soldier had an affinity for the outdoors.

"He always loved the physical side of life," his mother said.

An April 8 article in the Truman State University Index, the student newspaper, shed light on his view of the war.

"We had all been led to believe that Iraq posed a serious threat to America as well as its surrounding nations," Campbell is quoted as saying in an e-mail interview from Baghdad. "It is now a year later, and alas, no weapons of mass destruction or any other real threat, for that matter."

`A good kid'

The principal at Washburn Rural High School in Topeka, Kan., described Pvt. Jeremy Drexler as a young man who marched to the tune of a different drummer.

"Really, he was a weird kid as a teenager," his mother, Debbie, joked. "His hair was long, his clothes were all black and his pants were baggy down to his knees. But he was a good kid, and that's what mattered most."

Drexler, 23, was killed May 2 when his convoy was attacked in Baghdad. He was a member of the 1st Cavalry Division's 91st Engineer Battalion based in Ft. Hood, Texas.

Drexler was the oldest of three sons in the military, but his enlistment was the most surprising. It didn't seem to fit his quiet personality.

Drexler, however, was from a military family. His father was in the Coast Guard and his maternal grandfather was an Army chaplain. His younger brothers, Timothy and Kenneth, are in the Navy and Marine Corps, respectively.

"He wanted to make something of his life. It had been going nowhere," Drexler said of her son.

She laughed as she remembered the day his long locks were trimmed to a buzz cut.

"He was practically bald. But he smiled and said, `Get a load of this,'" she said. "I was as proud as can be of him."